LYDIA POLGREEN,JOHN ELIGON & ALAN COWELL They gathered in the rolling green hills of the Eastern Cape on Sunday to return a son to his native soil: princes and presidents,chiefs and priests,celebrities and grandmothers,comrades and cellmates,here to bury Nelson Mandela. Whilst your long walk to freedom has ended in the physical sense,our own journey continues, President Jacob Zuma declared in a eulogy for Mandela at a state funeral in this far-flung village. The ceremony began in a cavernous dome housing thousands with choirs and television cameras,prayers and memories. The funeral - the final parting after a series of celebrations and memorials that has consumed the land since Mandela died on December 5 after months of illness and decline - left his country poised on the cusp of a post-Mandela era that seems certain to test the durability of his legacy. Mandelas state funeral burial knitted together the many strands of his life. In addition to the full pomp of state ceremonies,complete with goose-stepping soldiers,21-gun salutes and jet fighter formations,the service included Christian prayers - Mandela was a lifelong Methodist - and traditions and rituals of the AbaThembu community into which he was born. Indeed,long before he became a freedom fighter,a fugitive,the worlds most famous political prisoner and then the embodiment of forgiveness and reconciliation,Nelson Mandela was a boy of the Thembu royal family. Thembu rituals were a vital part of the funeral proceedings. Ahmed Kathrada,an Indian-origin fellow defendant in the treason trial that sent Mandela to prison for 27 years,said in an emotional address that Mandela had united a divided nation. Today,mingled with the grief is the enormous pride that one of our own has during your life,and now in your death,united the people of South Africa and the entire world on a scale never experienced before in history, he said. About 5,000 people attended the state funeral,but millions more watched it on television. A 21-gun salute rang out. Jet planes roared overhead. The Last Post bugle call echoed across the green hills. And Nelson Rolihlahla Mandelas body was returned to the earth. Traditional tribal rituals at funeral The state funeral for Mandela also included those rituals from the tradition of the Xhosa people,to whom Mandela's Thembu clan belongs. The ceremony was poised to be an eclectic mix of traditional rituals,including Xhosa burial rituals such as Talking to the body: Xhosa culture requires a family elder to stay with Mandelas body and explain to his spirit what is happening. The body must rest for one night in his family house before the burial. Wrapped in a lion skin: The deceased must be wrapped in a special garment. For people of a high rank like Mandela,who is the son of a traditional clan chief,the body or the casket is usually wrapped in the skin of a leopard or a lion. Mandelas body was wrapped in a lion skin. Slaughtering the ox: Xhosa tradition requires the slaughtering of an animal early on the day of the burial. After the ritual throat slitting,the animal will be eaten by the mourners,usually outside the family house. For people of a high rank like Mandela an ox will be killed. End of the mourning: A year after the burial another ox will be slaughtered and eaten by the family to mark the end of the mourning period,in a tradition called Ukuzila. Bringing back ritual: About another year later a joyous ceremony is celebrated to bring back the deceased into the family so that the person will henceforth be looking over the family and its children as a well-meaning ancestor,a Xhosa ritual that is called Ukubuyisa. ap
